Day 2: Isla de Rosario

We woke up and had a nice breakfast with Colombian coffee at the little café next to our apartment.  Today we decided to visit the Isla de Rosario, which is a chain of small islands outside of Cartagena. I had heard very mixed reviews on whether it was a good idea or not –some people saying it is beautiful and a must see and other saying it was not a great experience. We decided to try it out for ourselves. We wanted adventure on this trip and today we got adventure! Getting to the islands was one of the craziest experiences of my life. You just walk down to the marina and find a tour boat, but there are hundreds of people trying to get onto these boats. You just put your name on a list and wait for them to call you. Then they cram about 40 people onto these tiny little motor boats. We were literally packed in there like sardines—I could hardly move. It took about 45 minutes to get to the first island and the ride was a little rough, but it wasn’t too bad. Once we got there, he told us we had the option to either go to the aquarium on the island or stay on the boat and they would take us snorkeling.  We decided to do the snorkeling option; however, once we got to the place where we were snorkeling they told us it would be another $15 a person to snorkel. Jeff talked him down to $10 and said that we were going to share a mask so we were only paying for one of us. The guy then changed the story and said that it was $10 to even get into the water to swim. After Jeff argued with him in Spanish for a while (Jeff’s Spanish gets better when he is mad!) we both ended up getting to go for $10, which was still a racket.  The snorkeling was ok, but nothing great.

After snorkeling we all got back onto the boat so they could take us to the next island. This boat ride to the next Island was one of the scariest experiences of my life. There were 6” swells that we were speeding though in a tiny boat packed with 35 people….we literally were getting airborne and I thought the boat was going to sink every time we hit the water. Every was screaming and it felt like we were on a water ride at Kings Island. We made it to the beach in one piece though and we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach. The beach was really pretty and the water was so warm it felt like bath water. We were also served a nice lunch of fish and coconut rice.  It was hot, but there was a nice cool breeze the whole time. Both of us feel asleep on the beach for a while too, which I never do so it was a very relaxing afternoon. However, the relaxation was quickly interrupted once we got back on the boat to get home….Obviously we made it back, but there were a few times that we were unsure if that was going to happen.

That night we had a drink at the Café del Mar, which is a very trendy outdoor bar on the top of the old city wall overlooking the ocean. We sipped on our drinks as we watched the sunset. It was another great day.